A baby dragon, or a bad joke?

Electronic Telegraph ^ | 24/01/2004 | Roger Highfield, Science Editor

[aculeus]

A pickled "dragon" that looks as if it might once have flown around Hogwarts has been found in a garage in Oxfordshire.

Yesterday the baby dragon, in a sealed 30in jar, was in the office of Allistair Mitchell, who runs a marketing company in Oxford. He was asked to investigate by his friend, David Hart, from Sutton Courtenay, who discovered it.

A metal tin found with the dragon contained paperwork in old-fashioned German of the 1890s. Mr Mitchell speculates that German scientists may have attempted to use the dragon to hoax their English counterparts in the 1890s, when rivalry between the countries was intense.

"At the time, scientists were the equivalent of today's pop stars. It would have been a great propaganda coup for the Germans if it had come off.

"I've shown the photos to someone from Oxford University and he thought it was amazing. Obviously he could not say if it was real and wanted to do a biopsy."

The documents suggest that the Natural History Museum turned the dragon away, possibly because they suspected it was a trick, and sent it to be destroyed. But it appears a porter intercepted the jar and took it home. The papers suggest the porter may have been Frederick Hart - David Hart's grandfather.

Mr Mitchell said: "The dragon is flawless, from the tiny teeth to the umbilical cord. It could be made from indiarubber, because Germany was the world's leading manufacturer of it at the time, or it could be made of wax. It has to be fake. No one has ever proved scientifically that dragons exist. But everyone who sees it immediately asks, 'Is it real?' "

Yesterday the Natural History Museum said that it was interested in following up the find.

The scientific journal Nature once carried a tongue-in-cheek article on the ecology of dragons written by Lord May, who became the science adviser to the Prime Minister and is now the president of the Royal Society.

From the reported sightings, Lord May concluded that dragons are "both omnivorous and voracious", with great variations in diet: one made do with two sheep every day while another, kept by Pope St Sylvester, consumed 6,000 people daily. Their lifespan seems to range between 1,000 and 10,000 years.

Some scientists believe that dragons, though the product of imagination, were inspired by the extraordinary creatures that once roamed the Earth. As J K Rowling's alter ego Hermione Granger once suggested, legends have a basis in fact.

[aruanan]

I'm probably not explaining my objection very well. The thing exquisitely mirrors the appearance of a late-term human fetus.

No, you're explaining it well. I'm just being fatuous. Whoever made the thing did a beautiful job. It is to the science of the time, though much more nicely done, what Mormon ancient American history was to then-extant ideas about anthopology and pre-history.

[AnalogReigns]

Who knows???

http://www.dragon-history.com/

[Scenic Sounds]

Too cute!

Adorable - why that little critter's cuter than a piglet playing in a potful of pickles!! ;-)

[Cultural Jihad]

The real issue is the fact that many proxy servers filter out content coming from that particular site.

[BibChr]

Yikes. What did I blunder into — to dangle a preposition?

Dan

[null and void]

Never use a preposition to end a sentence with...

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hmmm, dragons intrigue me, especially the lively ones. ;-)

[mhking]

Kind of like the defunct Barcelona Dragons?

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[sarasmom]

So that is what is in all those sideshow exhibits I never visited at the county fair!
Too cute!

[King Prout]

fake of whatever sort, that li'l tyke is cool.

[King Prout]

you edited out his spliff!

[RightOnline]

"There was one that looked like WILL ROGERS! another looked like a GORILLA! another said EAT AT JOE'S! Farm magazines show them all the time, yet We don't have the technology to do these things?"

There are a few simple rules of sarcasm: "be sure you know what you're talking about before attempting it" is one of them. Now, it's patently obvious you've never really studied the first thing about so-called crop circles or you wouldn't have said what you said (little details, i.e. the plant stalks are always bent, never broken; EVER; try that with a field of corn, ace..........go ahead; try it). Just minor details like that.

So sonny, go do your homework, then come back and play.

[weegee]

"How'd that thing get in my pickle jah??? It better not haven eaten all my pickles..."

[Shooter 2.5]

Whoever created that did a beautiful job.

[Axenolith]

I guess all of the movies and stories that allude or show them to be Oviparous are false then...

[Axenolith]

It could be just the attachment umbilical the weds the wee beastie to the lining of a human stomach until it BURSTS FORTH!!!

[Indie]

X-rays or other scans could easily tell. It wouldn't surprise me though if such testing is never done... as such a critter wouldn't fit into accepted scientific dogma. Wouldn't want to rock the boat now, eh?

I didn't realize it was sealed. I must've misread it. A leg from the 1800's? Cool...or ahh...gross..lol.

As far as it never being tested, it won't be because it isn't real. NObody is that altruistic not to have something tested in order not to "rock the boat." :) [unless they use it as a convenient excuse to avoid exposure of their quackery] Cheers!

[capitan_refugio]

An umbilical cord suggests a placenta, and only placental mammals have placentas. However, some reptiles, vipers if I recall correctly, have live births.

[Smokin' Joe]

I'm with you on that. This should be in either a museum of natural history--or an art museum. Fabulous work.

[Smokin' Joe]

Some cartilaginous fishes as well. The cow-nosed ray, for example.